Nineteen times he gives up what belongs to his little brother or sister of his own accord, perhaps after a severe internal struggle.

The twentieth time the result of the struggle goes the wrong way, and he attempts to retain by violence what does not belong to him.

We take no notice of the nineteen cases when the little fellow did right, but come and box his ears in the one case when he does wrong.
_Origin of the Error_.
The idea on which this mode of treatment is founded--namely, that it is a _matter of course_ that children should do right, so that when they do right there is nothing to be said, and that doing wrong is the abnormal condition and exceptional action which alone requires the parent to interfere--is, to a great extent, a mistake.

Indeed, the _matter of course_ is all the other way.

A babe will seize the plaything of another babe without the least compunction long after it is keenly alive to the injustice and wrongfulness of having its own playthings taken by any other child.